Background:
At the end of the 50's, two facts changed Latin Music forever: The Cuban Revolution and Rock 'N' Roll.
The Cuban Revolution stopped the economic development of Havana and consequently the music industry which had developed came to an abrupt end. The music business relationship between Cuba and the United States was severed, which started the exile by most of the Cuban artists. In some ways it actually helped the Afro-Caribbean music community as they moved to their new headquarters on the East Coast. Artists from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic also migrated to this area (his brought about the birth of Salsa). In another way, the Cuban Revolution and political changes in different countries also inspired a new generation of Latin American artists to take traditional influences and to rebuild the folk music (Nueva Canción movement).
Rock 'n' Roll also influenced all the artists that performed since the 1960's, although in different ways. Some artists were interested in the Contemporary American sounds and the music industry helped to define the pop icons for all Latin America. Other artists took the traditional sounds of latin music and started to fuse them together with the new modern influences in a rebellious way to express their nonconformity and annoying the 'Old School' of musicians; for example, artists like Piazzolla or Willie Colón.
The feedback between Latin America and the United States and the impact of the increasing Hispanic population in the US have influenced contemporary Latin music. This multicultural music has been adopted by artists that for the last 50 years have become the voice of Latin American youth; some of this music was projected within a simplified format to a large International audience such as Latin Pop music.
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